Keeping your heart healthy shouldn’t feel like a job. With the right mental focus, diet, and exercise, you can stay heart healthy quickly!

When you think of cardiovascular health, what first comes to mind? Regardless of diet, lifestyle, or physical changes, your heart should always be properly loved. This organ is vitally responsible for just about everything that gives us life, yet heart disease remains the leading cause of death in both men and women in America. While this is a sobering statistic, there are simple, everyday lifestyle choices you can make that will positively affect our heart and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time!

Here are a few ways for you to keep your heart healthy in quick or less:

1. Eat your colors. 

Thanks to the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, fresh produce is teeming with heart-healthy benefits. Try to incorporate at least three servings of different colored vegetables a day for optimal health.

2. Start the day off right. 

For a quick, heart-healthy option in the morning, try adding fruit to a serving of fiber-filled grains (like oatmeal, for example. This combination will help you stay full and help reduce cholesterol levels, which is great for overall heart health.

3. Reduce consumption of sugar-laden drinks. 

Drinking less sugary beverages (like soda, calorie-laden lattes, and energy drinks) is not only heart-healthy it’s also good for weight management and your overall health. Instead, go for flat or sparkling water infused with fruit or enjoy herbal or regular iced tea with no sugar added.

4. Go nuts. 

Thanks to heart-healthy fats, nuts like walnuts, almonds, peanuts, and pistachios can help improve blood cholesterol levels and reduce cardiovascular disease. Instead of grabbing a typical snack food (like chips or cookies), try reaching for a handful of nuts. You can also add nuts to salads or yogurt for a delightful crunch or use them in place of meat for protein.

No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute as medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.